, 1887-03-25
OLD UNCLE CY.
PEN PICTURE OF THE OLD TIME
PLANTATION SLAVE.


Found In Many n Southern House,
Observation-Disclosures of a Typical No
gro Servant-"Aunt Bess."
"Uncle Remus, :" so charmingly sketched
by Chandler Harris, Of Georgia, had his
counterpart in many n southern house
hold. My Uncle Remus is dead. He was
the home born slave of my grandfather,
in Barnwell, and in his early manhood
RATED lumber dow Edisto river to
Charleston. A pure African by blood, he
had the strongly marked prognathous
features of his race; was six feet high,
with flesh and muscle in proportion. On
the marriage of my father, in 1920, Cy
was given TO him, and helped him to build
the log house o which he TOOL his bride,
and to clear his first field. Uncle Cy, as
the children always called him, taught me
to ride a horse, and later on to shoot a
gun. He shook hickory nuts out of the
tall trees, and rived trap sticks for me to
catch birds, made cute bows and arrows,
and in the spring time could peel of bark
from saplings and plat me the most glori-
Gus popping whips in the world. He was
the best wagner of his time; could get
more out Of a team with less worry, and
take n heavy load over the worst roads
with less accident han anybody else. At
log rollings and house raisings he was
head man, and likewise at grading oats
and wheat. He was fabulous, in my eyes,
for strength and skill. For blowing, hoe
ing and cotton picking he was no great
things-rather disdained them as fit only
for women and common niggers. He was
a great axman, and could hew to the line.
He chewed tobacco; and many Of my
choicest favors and p~ropitiations were pro-
cured by a quid literally guild pro quo.
l suppose he was the father Of thirty or
forty children, begotten in his own image,
and that all his posterity-children.
grandchildren and greatgrandchildrcn-
would at this time amount to several hun
dred.
Uncle Cy became II fair plantation car
penter and blacksmith; could make u pillow
and stock it, hang doors and gates and
make u wagon that woul run. On my
father's death Cy became the property of
my mother by his will, for he thought
fully aid she could not keep up the plan
tation without him. AT the division of
her estate he and his wife fen to me. BY
degrees he graded me up rs years yer on.
1t was first Holland, then Mas Holland,
then Master, which title he used to the
last, as though he liked it. Here | nay
record q criticism on that romance of
marvellous genius, "Uncle Toms Cabin
Such u negro as Uncle Tom was never
sold out of any family. Money could not
buy that sort.
1t was a great treat to be permitted to
Ego to town. with Uncle Cy on the cot
ton wagon. There was one to whom he
bore u tender loyalty, and for whom he
had three names-Missus, Your Mudder,
and Miss Betsy. To her he felt amenable
for the lads safety, and he well knew how
to afford him the utmost fun within safe
ty limits. When the bright camp fire was
kindled and the team battered and fed for
the night, Uncle Cy would bring out that
frying pan-his only culinary apparatus
and work up n savory meal. For butch
ering n beef or mutton there was none
like him, and at hog killing time he en-
riched me with pigtails II bladders. In
ghosts and witches he was a firm believer,
and could beat Vennor prognosticating the
weather. l would put him against Car
Isle or Barnard for telling the o of the
night If the Seven Stars, Jobs Coffin, the
Three Runners, and other heavenly bodies
were shining.
For overseers he had a deep dislike.
While obeying his w master in the
letter and spirit of the Epistle to the
Ephesians, he was insubordinnte to dele
gated authority, and here came in his
most serious troubles. A sad case / re-
member to ave occurred in Alabama
about 1910. In a difficulty with the
overseer Uncle Cy rebeled and ran away,
taking with him two other negro men.
They were gone over a year, and no
tidings of them could be got. At last
they turned up in South Carolina. II
seems they had made their way back to
the old Barnwen neighborhood, u distance
of over 300 miles, crossing the Chatta-
hoochee, Flint, Oconee, Ocmulgee and
Savannah rivers, and becoming weary of
hiding out they voluntarily surrendered
themselves. / was n schoolboy at Collins
worth, Ga, when they passed along the
road in the ragged and chapfallen plight of
runaways being returned home.
Thirty years later Uncle Cy met me at
the station to take me out to my farm,
Butler Lodge. OF that runaway
episode in his life he had ever been reti-
cent, but as we o along through the
lonely forest I drew him ont on 1t. "Now
tell me; no danger; freedoms Gomez; tell
me all about it-how you lodged the
patrols and crossed those rivers and made
the trip" And 1 slipped a plug of to-
bacco INTO his hand. Never was n twenty
mile journey better beguiled. He told
me all-how they got up a stock of pro-
visions to start or N how they replen-
lSutu ~ ny tnc way IL hdiiO SNdptSs
the shrewd DISCUSSES for passing through
or around the towns and villages; lying
low by day and travelling by night. Dick
ems never contrived n story with richer or
more various incident. Much comedy,
but ever and anon touching on tragedy.
Xenophon's famou retreat with the
10, 900 Greeks did not excel this In strategy.
Out of what was left when the enamel
patton came l gave him forty acres Of
land and mot n mule, but a yoke OF
steers, a COW and calf, some provisions
and his tools. He soon fixed up n snug
home md n shop; and what with work
ing at his craft and a little farming, and
such annual stipend as l could send him
in money, he made out tn finish his pill
grimage tolerably well. His connubial
morals improved, and believe in his sal
walton. His last letters to me (dictatedD
were full Of gratitude and hope.
Uncle Cy owed much to his wife-an
honest, truthful and %virtuous woman.
She was the best nurse / eve say, and
ministered with unspeakable fidelity and
tenderness to my parents and brothers
and sisters on their deathbeds. Aunt
Bess" was the first woman l ever heard
pray in public. She was n leaven and n
light. Some influence and honest pennies
she gained by practicing that delicate pro-
fession which the Egyptians, in Moses
tfD,a tnrpoI ayar 10 tEafr vropnan na1v